Some of you will know it but, for those who don’t, this much-loved novelty song, with music penned by cool dude Burt Bacharach, concerns a cowboy who is limping through hostile territory with just three wheels on his wagon, then two, then one ... you get the picture.

But, hey, what’s so bad about three wheels?

After all, the first cars started out with that number, Nicolas Cugnot's 1770 Steam Dray and Karl Benz's 1886 Patented Motorwagen among them.

From those pioneering days, through post-war years, race track feats and Del Boy and Rodney, three wheelers have been ever-present.

Recently, major car manufacturers have produced three-wheeled concepts, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, General Motors, BMW, and Volkswagen among them.

And there is a host of smaller three-wheeler builders who turn out well-engineered motors in kit form.

Let’s take a quick look at some notable transport with just three-quarters of the regular circular bits on the road.

Morgan

Undisputed aristocrat of three-wheelerdom. The Malvern-based family firm began car production in 1919 and, by the 1930s, the cars were achieving 100mph-plus on the track. Now their iconic design has been updated. The power train is a 1976cc V-twin engine mated to a Mazda five-speed gearbox.

Bond

No, not 007, but Lawrie Bond, an engineer from Lancashire. The marque is probably best known for the Bond Bug, designed by the chap who went on to oversee the design and production of Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder in Star Wars. One of the models was built on a Bug chassis.

Reliant

TV’s Only Fools And Horses immortalised the brand, but Trotters’ Independent Trading Company was but a small part of the story. The Staffordshire-based Reliant Motor Company produced more than half a million fibreglass-bodied cars over 65 years. In 2001 it finished production and began importing vehicles.

A final edition of the Robin, costing £10,000, included leather seats, metallic gold paint, alloy wheels, walnut dashboard and a sunroof . Del would have loved one.

Messcherschmitt and Heinkel

Post-war austerity saw German plane manufacturers turn from the battle in the air to making humble transport for a recovering nation. The

KR200, Kabinenroller was a bubble car (so called because of the shape of its front screen) produced by Messcherschmitt from 1955 to 1964. The Kabine, by Heinkel, was built from 1956 to 1958. Production was re-started in 1960 in the UK as the Trojan 200 and ran until 1966.

BMW Isetta

In 1955 BMW bought the manufacturing rights to a bubble car, replacing the two-stroke engine with a four-stroke. A forward-opening swing door allowed front-on kerb parking. Production continued until 1962.

Kit cars

The Pembleton Super Sports, Buckland B3, Grinnall Scorpion and Triking Sports Car may not be household names, but they are among firms offering exhilarating driving on a budget. Kits can be bought from about £8,000, while an assembled car could set you back £20,000.